The Australian Capital Territory, the seat of the Australian Government, is the physical representation of the Australian Federation. Famously chosen to sit between the rival cities of Sydney and Melbourne, and to “be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney,” the site of the Federal Capital had the competing expectations of a new nation to fulfil.

Surveyor Charles Scrivener and his team (surveyors Percy Sheaffe, Harry Mouat, and Frederick Johnston with later work by John Reid) conducted the original survey to define and document the border of the future Federal Capital Territory, commencing in 1910 and completing the work in 1915. The results are documented in 67 hand drawn field books. This information is in turn translated into 13 hand drawn plans that were used by the Lands and Survey Branch of the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs to define the border of the Federal Capital.

The ACT Border Survey Field Books, held by the Territory Records Office and made available by ArchivesACT, and the FC18 Plans, held by the National Archives of Australia, provide the raw data and the legal definition of the Australian Capital Territory. They remain the source of authority for all survey work within the ACT.